Chapter Fourteen: The News Media Study Chapter Summary The First Amendment gives the U.S. news media considerable freedom. The Framers granted the press this freedom in another attempt to check the power of government. The news media do act as a check on government power, making it possible for citizens to gain information on the performance of officeholders. But in reality the media and politicians are more than simple adversaries. Politicians and reporters in the United States engage in an odd dance: each dancer tries to manipulate the other, and each has something the other needs. Politicians are motivated by reelection, while the news media are pursuing profits. Politicians attempt to trade private information for favorable

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Unformatted text preview: coverage. The news media try to acquire and transmit the type of information desired by their audiences. The power struggle between politicians and the press has evolved over time and across situations. In some settings, particularly the partisan press era, parties and politicians can dictate much of the content of political news. In other settings, particularly in the era of the newspaper barons, the media hold greater sway over the news. However, despite politicians' and the media's best efforts to the contrary, most of the time neither can get what it wants without at least some help from the other....
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